In the application of wax to the skin to be treated, use is made of an applicator in the form of a stick. The latter can be inserted into a bath of hot wax in a wax heater, withdrawn from the bath with adherent molten wax and applied to the skin. The removal of excess wax from the applicator or stick is frequently important and sticks of various width may be used in the application process.
If the stick is wiped along the edge of a can containing the wax and inserted into a wax heater closely surrounding the can, both the edge of the can and the surrounding heater may become contaminated with the wax and have to be cleaned at the end of the process. Furthermore, the wiping or scraping of the stick along a rounded lip of the can may not remove all or as much of the wax from the stick as may be required or desired and cannot ensure a uniform thickness of the layer of wax across the width of the stick.
Indeed, problems of the removal of excess liquid from applicators for liquids, such as paint brushes, have been dealt with in the past by, for example, mounting a paint scraper or wiper on the lip of a paint can. The wiping edge may then lie inwardly of the lip of the can so that the excess paint or the paint wiped from the brush can fall directly back into the body of liquid in the can and will not contaminate the lip of the can.
While such wiping devices have proved to be effective for paint, they have not been found to be effective or sufficiently versatile as wax scrapers in the dipilatory field or for use of hot wax for treatment of a subject.